REUTERS/Joe PenneyPassengers take a break while travelling on a SNIM train carrying iron ore and mine workers across the desert outside Nouadhibou June 25, 2014.

On Tuesday, Mauritania and its partly government-run ore mining company, SNIM, reported that they expect to make 13 million tons of iron ore in 2014. That’s a lot of iron.

A majority of the iron ore in the North African country is found in its vast deserts, which are isolated from the major shipping ports on its coast. How does the ore get to the ports, and how do the laborers, who come from all over all the world for the promise of work, get to the mines? They take the train, of course.

The journey starts in Nouadhibou, the second largest city in Mauritania and a major trade port.

Huge ships come from all over the world to pick up loads of freight. Nouadhibou is also home to many retired and abandoned ships, and is known as the world's largest ship graveyard.

Nouadhibou is the western end of the Mauritania Railway. From here, the tracks run deep into the desert, some 437 miles.

Every day, around 100 people pile on board the train, which isn't even technically meant for people, save a few old passenger cars at the end of the train. Tickets cost four dollars for the passenger train. Hitching, of course, is free.

They come from all over the world for the promise of work. This man, a business official, came from China. Last year, 76% of all Mauritania's exporting was attributed to SNIM's iron ore shipped to China.